


Yellow-Aproned Sunshine

by azurrys



Category: Granblue Fantasy (Video Game)
Genre: Cooking, F/M, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, Kitchen Duty as Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:13:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25368922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azurrys/pseuds/azurrys
Summary: "The kitchen's not any worse than a battlefield, Sandalphon. Better, actually, since I can wear an apron. I'll just take off the pieces of armour that get in the way."
Relationships: Djeeta/Sandalphon (Granblue Fantasy)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 48
Collections: Eat Drink and Make Merry 2020





	Yellow-Aproned Sunshine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BlueWolves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueWolves/gifts).



"There you are, Sandalphon!"

The voice was one that Sandalphon was quickly becoming familiar with. In truth, he still wondered how the Grandcypher's captain had managed to find so much time to visit him over these short weeks since he'd joined the crew. Surely she should have better things to do? But it seemed as if every time he turned around, there she was again, smiling up at him with that boundless energy he honestly found rather unsettling.

One person shouldn't be able to do so much.

He wasn't even sure how she'd managed to track him down, given how large the Grandcypher was, but there she was: walking across the deck towards him, wind whipping through her hair, tossing her clothes askew. Somehow, in the last few hours since he'd seen her, she'd changed her outfit again to don an all-white dress, its long ruffled skirt flowing behind her. Narrowing his eyes at her, Sandalphon asked, "And what do you need from me now, Singularity? Dispatching me to another raid? Have some monsters to slay, perhaps?"

"Hello to you too, Sandalphon." Undaunted as always, Djeeta regarded him with her usual smile. "And don't worry! It's nothing like that today." She held a piece of paper out to him, and all he managed to take in was the boxes outlining a roster of some kind before she spoke. "Kitchen duty. You're late for your shift, so I'm here to pick you up. I may have let you skip breakfast and lunch, but you're not getting out of dinner."

"…What?" Snatching the paper over, Sandalphon glared at it. Sure enough, there was his name written next to today's date, below the bold heading proclaiming KITCHEN. "I didn't agree to this."

"You agreed to it by becoming a member of my crew! We all have to help out around the Grandcypher. It's only fair." Djeeta reached an expectant hand towards him. Did she want him to take it? Staring at the delicate fingers for a moment, Sandalphon finally just shoved the roster back into her hand. "Aw, don't look so grumpy. It's my shift too! I'll be helping out."

"In your Glorybringer outfit?" he couldn't help but ask dryly. Djeeta paused, glancing down at her clothes, then shrugged.

"The kitchen's not any worse than a battlefield, Sandalphon. Better, actually, since I can wear an apron. I'll just take off the pieces of armour that get in the way."

To his irritation, Sandalphon found that he had no retort to that. Without waiting for her, he started towards the lower deck, saying, "Fine. I did agree to join, even if this is a temporary arrangement, so I'll do my part."

Quick footsteps sounded behind him, and in seconds Djeeta was walking shoulder-to-shoulder with him again. "I knew you'd come around! Don't worry, it'll be fun!"

* * *

"You're pretty good around the kitchen." Djeeta, as expected, was the kind of person who always found the time to talk even while doing something else. All decked out in a bright yellow apron that looked terrible against the gold trim on her dress, she brandished a ladle like it was a lethal weapon. Sandalphon sighed aloud, glancing over to meet her blindingly bright smile. He didn't like looking at it for too long. If he did, he felt like it would imprint itself on his mind.

"I'm not sure where you get that impression from, Singularity. My specialty is coffee, not cooking." As he spoke, he reached over to turn the soup down, hearing the bubbling inside reach a new peak. Djeeta raised an amused eyebrow, a smile playing on her lips.

"You're pretty good at your non-specialty, then. Plus you look great in an apron," she teased, and Sandalphon glared back in offence.

"I only changed into this at your insistence! Don't try to sully my dignity — "

"Yes, yes, supreme primarch."

Her words were light, and Sandalphon knew she meant it as a joke, but hearing the title spoken aloud made him freeze for a moment. _Supreme primarch_ … sucking in a deep breath, Sandalphon forced himself to ignore how ill-fitting it felt, staring down at the knife. His reflection stared back at him, and the misplaced wave of discomfort made him chop down on the spring onions with unusual viciousness.

"Sandalphon?" Djeeta's voice was low and concerned, but he couldn't bring himself to look back at her. "I'm sorry. I didn't — "

"You didn't do anything wrong." His voice came out a little too gruff. He did mean what he'd said. Softening his tone, he continued, "Now that I've inherited that position, I'll live up to it. No matter what it takes."

"I know you will. I trust you."

The sheer, honest conviction in her words made Sandalphon pause again, the knife suspended in mid-air as he turned disbelieving eyes on her. There wasn't a hint of doubt in her gaze — her smile was warm and bright, brimming over with sincerity, and it made his heart squeeze in his chest for some reason. Wrenching his gaze away, he forced himself to return to his onion-chopping, but his mind still lingered on her smile.

How did she… after everything he'd done, how could she _trust_ him? He still needed to make it up to her — to the crew, to all the people he'd hurt — and he was so far away from that, so far from atoning for his sins.

"Sandalphon, stop thinking gloomy thoughts."

He almost dropped the knife when a finger crossed his field of vision, pressing against the centre of his brow. "Wh — Singularity! What are you doing?!"

"Smoothing your frown away! If any primal were to develop wrinkles, it would be you, because you scowl so much."

"I don't…" He hadn't even finished his sentence before he realised how useless it would be to argue with her. Instead, he forced himself to relax his facial muscles, and she must have decided he was doing well enough — she lifted her finger off after a moment, and Sandalphon's vision refocused to find her standing close enough to touch.

To his bafflement, his first instinct wasn't to pull away. He wanted to lean in, to… what?

Stumbling back hurriedly, trying to ignore the heat rising in his cheeks, Sandalphon averted his gaze. Opposite him, Djeeta reeled back as well, so quickly that she almost stumbled over her own skirt where it trailed on the ground. "S-sorry," Djeeta said, sounding as embarrassed as he felt for once. "Let's just… um…"

"Soup's ready," Sandalphon cut in, desperate to change the topic. Djeeta rose to the invitation instantly, both of them moving to fuss over it.

Beyond the sparsest of questions and requests, they didn't say another word to each other for the rest of the night.

* * *

Somehow, Sandalphon had thought it would just be for a day, but of course the roster turned out to be for the whole week.

"It'd be much too difficult if we had to change it every day," Djeeta answered with a laugh, her smile entirely too bright for this hour of morning. The awkward moment of the day before seemed to have been completely forgotten, and for some reason Sandalphon wasn't sure if he was relieved or not. "Come on! The crew needs breakfast."

" _I_ need sleep." He didn't, actually — a primal perk. He'd been awake for hours, and he'd long since changed into a new set of clothes and his armour. Djeeta's unimpressed look made it very clear that she'd noticed.

He considered closing the door on her, but… he couldn't really bear to. Sighing, Sandalphon stepped outside, closing his door behind him. "Fine. Let's go."

"Okay, perfect!"

Sandalphon stiffened when he felt warmth slip into his hand, footsteps stalling, but Djeeta didn't stop. Before he realised, Sandalphon was being pulled along by her — a disturbingly familiar situation.

Why was it always so easy to get caught up in her? She was like a tornado, drawing in everyone near her whether they wanted it or not. All Sandalphon could do was follow along as she pulled him into the kitchen, offering him an apron along with an order to take his armour off as she started pulling her own apron on — the same ugly yellow thing she'd been wearing the day before.

He had no idea how to resist, so it was much easier to just… play along with it.

By the time he was done removing his armour and had the apron on, though, Djeeta _still_ wasn't done. Sandalphon's lips twitched, watching her struggle with the knot behind her back with a deepening frown. "I don't get it. I managed to do this fine yesterday, but it keeps falling off today…"

"You're terrible at this." Sandalphon froze at how — affectionate? — the words sounded, and from the weird look that Djeeta gave him, it must have seemed odd to her as well. Coughing to hide his embarrassment, he walked around Djeeta, nudging her hands away from the tangled mess. Her shoulders were tense and set as he undid them, tying the strings into a neat bow. "There. This should work."

"Thank you." Her tone was unexpectedly heartfelt, enough to make Sandalphon's steps stutter where he was walking back to the counter before he forced himself to go on. Djeeta was smiling at him again, sweet and warm in that way of hers which always made his heart clench for some reason. Hurriedly averting his gaze, he started laying out utensils on the counter, speaking if only to avoid looking at her again.

"Let's get to work. We have a lot of people to cook for."

* * *

The routine came together remarkably fast. Before long, Sandalphon found it more than natural to spend an hour or two before every meal in the kitchen with Djeeta, helping to put together the crew's meals. They weren't the only people on kitchen duty, of course, with how many people they had to feed, but the Grandcypher was so big that they had one of its smaller kitchens all to themselves.

Four days into the week, this was the first time Djeeta had missed a shift. She was out leading a team on some foot raid or another, and their return had been delayed. Sandalphon, for his part, had denied a substitute — he'd rather prepare both of their parts alone rather than have to work with a crew member he'd hardly spoken to. He supposed that wasn't the most charitable of him, as someone aspiring to take over as supreme primarch, but at the same time he knew there were still plenty of crew members who looked askance at him for what he'd done to Djeeta.

He couldn't even blame them, and he certainly wasn't going to force them to work with him. Even if, somehow, looking at that obnoxious daffodil-yellow apron Djeeta always wore — which now hung innocently on the wall, as if waiting for her to come back and put it on — made the kitchen feel a little lonely.

"Hey, Grumplephon! How's things? You having fun cooking?"

…Well, that had lasted all of a minute.

Sandalphon swatted Vyrn away before they could land on his head, narrowing his eyes into a glare as vicious as he could muster. Vyrn, of course, was completely unaffected — just laughed aloud as they circled him, then landed on his shoulder instead. _Ugh_. "Why aren't you hanging around the Singularity as usual?" he snapped. Vyrn just let out a huff, which Sandalphon felt as a puff of air on his cheek.

"She never lets me follow her out on raids! And she was supposed to be back ages ago. She didn't want to miss kitchen duty."

Sandalphon couldn't help snorting aloud at that, stirring the noodles in the pot. "I thought all skydwellers wanted to get out of their chores, or so I heard."

"Eh. 'Course, but this time's different! It's with you! She switched the roster around for it. Pulled captain powers and all!"

Sandalphon craned his neck around to frown at Vyrn. "She what?"

"…Oops." That was a look of regret if Sandalphon had ever seen one. "Maybe don't tell her I said that?"

"I'll say what I want." His mind was still reeling from the information, if he had to be honest. Djeeta had arranged for this? Put him on kitchen duty with her, for… what purpose, exactly?

"Oh, boy. I'd better make myself scarce for a few days. Maybe I'll go hide out with Lyria!" Vyrn certainly didn't sound too upset about that. Sandalphon watched as Vyrn flitted out of the room, and only the sound of the water boiling in the pot finally forced his attention back.

He wasn't sure what to think about this new information, still. He would have to work that out.

* * *

It was his last day of kitchen duty, and somehow, the thought was oddly disappointing.

Sandalphon hadn't hated it, although he'd thought he would. There were so many other things he could have spent his time on. But cooking with Djeeta, making coffee for the crew… it was all so comfortably mundane during these times when turmoil threatened on the horizon, and there was something nice about being able to provide a little comfort in the midst of uncertainty. Perhaps these thoughts meant that one day, he'd manage to be worthy of the title of supreme primarch. He hoped so, at least.

Of course, there was also the matter of what Vyrn had told him, but… he hadn't yet brought it up to Djeeta. He wasn't sure if he should.

Djeeta didn't come to pick him up this time. She knew to expect him punctually in the kitchen. Since the first two days, he hadn't shirked a minute. Looking up as he entered, she turned her usual bright smile on him — once again, she was wearing clothes far too nice for a kitchen and just draped the same yellow apron over them. Sandalphon was used to the sight by now. "Sandalphon! Perfect! Taste this chowder. I tried changing up the recipe a little."

Scooping up a spoonful of soup, she blew on it to cool it down before holding it to his lips. Not in much of a position to resist, Sandalphon sipped it, eyes closing as he considered the taste. Creamy and rich, with a hint of pepper that added a charming bit of zest. It was a little like her.

What kind of nonsense was even going through his head? Stepping back, Sandalphon glanced away from Djeeta as he mumbled, "It's passable, I suppose."

"Oh, good. I'm sure the crew will like it, then." She still seemed pleased by his reaction, somehow. He couldn't understand it. Shoving the thoughts aside, he set to work next to her washing and preparing the greens. He almost wished that this batch would turn out to secretly be monsters, like some in the past had been, but it didn't look like he would have that luck today.

"So… last day." Djeeta stared at the soup as she spoke, and Sandalphon couldn't make out her expression from where he stood. "After this, you'll be free! Until it comes around to your turn again, but we have a lot of crew members, so it'll take a while. You may end up assigned to laundry duty, though. There's a lot to take care of on the Grandcypher…"

"Will it be laundry duty with you?"

Sandalphon asked the question without thinking, and Djeeta jerked in instant reaction, the ladle falling from her hand — thankfully, its curved end caught on the edge of the pot before it fell into the soup. "W-what kind of question is that?! Sandalphon, don't be unfair!" Her cheeks were taking on a pink flush, and Sandalphon was sure that his own face was just as bad; he could feel the heat coming off it.

"It was an honest question!" Though he regretted asking it now. Oh, did he regret it. "You switched the roster around for this. Vyrn told me."

"I'm going to strangle that lizard," Djeeta muttered.

"Don't change the topic. You deliberately arranged it so that we could share kitchen duty, didn't you." It was a statement, not a question.

Djeeta had taken to stirring the soup furiously, her face flaming red. Sandalphon was sure that if he touched her cheeks, they would be hotter than the boiling pot simmering before her. "Well. _Maybe_. Maybe I did that. Which is to say, well. Yes. I did. Arrange it."

Somehow, although he'd already known this, hearing the answer made it feel more… real. "Oh." Sandalphon's gaze skittered away, back to the vegetables that he now realised he'd been holding in front of him, as if the leaves were a shield of some kind. Dropping them back into the basin, he wiped his hands off, keenly aware of Djeeta's eyes on him when he finally turned back to her. Staring back, it was a moment before he settled on simply asking, "Why?"

Djeeta cleared her throat, taking a deep breath. Finally seeming to accept that she wouldn't pay attention to the soup, she clapped on a lid and turned the stove off before rounding on him. "I want to spend time with you, Sandalphon."

"With… me?" The words somehow sounded foreign. They didn't fit him at all.

"Yes, with you! It's not a hard concept to understand, Sandalphon. Some of us — _most_ of us — we like you. We like that you're part of the crew. And we want you to like being part of the crew, too."

Sandalphon stared back at her, at a loss for words. Djeeta's gaze was earnest and resolute, and he hadn't even started to put together a reply before she spoke again. "I tease you about what you did a lot — " Sandalphon couldn't help cringing at the reminder, although Djeeta didn't pause, " — and so do the others, but you do know that I've forgiven you, right? I don't want it to bother you. That's why I make light of it." She reached out, patting his arm. "You're always alone. You're always _lonely_. And… I don't want you to be."

"Why?" The question slipped out before Sandalphon could stop himself.

"Are you just going to keep repeating that?" Djeeta all but pouted, and despite the situation Sandalphon felt his lips twitch in amusement. "Because I like you. I said that already, didn't I?"

"No, you hadn't," he couldn't help saying. "You said ' _we_ like you'. That's different from saying that you like me — "

"Stop nitpicking, Sandalphon, or I'm going to throw the soup at you." Her face was turning bright red again, and even though Sandalphon knew she would never follow through on that threat, she still tapped one of the pot handles as if to make a point. "Anyway, I just… I don't want you to be lonely, alright? It's not that hard to understand." Her voice was growing softer and softer, but Sandalphon could hear her easily. With the stove off and nobody else in the room, it was silent save for their conversation.

His own voice was low as he replied, though not out of any desire to be quiet — the words were just hard to say out loud. "I'm not."

"Not what?" Of course Djeeta had heard him. He hadn't had any trouble hearing her.

"Not lonely. Not… not anymore." He hated that he'd stammered on that sentence, face heating up in embarrassment. The words were so simple — why were they so difficult to say? "Not since I joined the crew."

It was true, he realised. He wasn't just saying it to make her feel better. Somewhere along the way, without him even realising, Sandalphon had grown… well, attached. The Grandcypher was always bustling with life and activity — so different from the peaceful calm of the shaded garden and the lonely tension of all the prisons he'd been in over the years. And the crew tried so hard to make him feel welcome, despite everything he'd done to them.

He knew it was because they were following their captain's example. Djeeta, more than any of them, tried so hard for him. She trusted him, someone who'd betrayed her before, with such humbling certainty that Sandalphon felt unworthy of it.

_I don't want you to be lonely._

She was so close, eyes wide as they stared into his.

_Because I like you._

It was so easy to close that distance.

Djeeta didn't pull away; instead, she leaned in until he felt her sigh against his lips. Kissing was new to him, and although Sandalphon had heard lurid descriptions of all kinds about what they were like, none of them had managed to capture how gentle it would feel. Djeeta's fingers were clutched in that silly yellow apron of hers, but when Sandalphon reached down, it only took a brush of his hand for her to realise what he was asking. He smiled into the kiss when she interlaced her fingers with his, holding on as if she was afraid of letting go.

They parted reluctantly, hands still linked, and the fact that he didn't want to draw back was such a foreign sensation that Sandalphon felt thrown. "So, um." His throat was oddly dry. Swallowing, he went on, "Earlier, when you said you liked me, I'm going to assume you meant as… more than a friend."

"Well, I… I hoped it could go either way, in case you didn't feel the same, but — " Djeeta giggled, and her eyes were all but sparkling. "Now that I know you do, yes. I did mean it as more than friends."

Her fingers felt so delicate where they touched his. How could he ever have cared so little, back then? Although it was just as much of a mystery to him as to how he cared so much now. When had Djeeta become so precious to him?

But even if it was a question he couldn't answer, he at least knew what he wanted to say now.

"I like you too." He heard Djeeta's breath catch at the answer, and somehow, that just made him smile even wider. "As more than a friend." The words had sounded much smoother in his mind; in practice, they came out sounding clumsy and awkward. But from the glow in Djeeta's eyes, it didn't seem like she minded.

"Then, does that mean…?" Her voice was tentatively hopeful. Sandalphon cleared his throat again, glancing away.

"If you want it, then — "

"Yes! I want it!" Sandalphon yelped when she practically pounced on him, almost bowling him over — a ray of obnoxiously yellow sunshine in an apron that _still_ looked awful on her.

And yet, despite that, he couldn't help laughing.

* * *

"Whoa! So letting you have the kitchen to yourself for a week to woo Grumplephon really did work out!"

Sandalphon nearly sputtered aloud at that, and Djeeta covered her face as she fell into a flurry of very loud coughs. Vyrn landed on her head with a smug grin, turning towards Sandalphon. "I thought you'd never come around! Took you long enough. Watching both of you moon over each other was the worst. Now I can hang out with my best pal again without her nagging me about how I'm cramping the atmosphere!"

"VYRN!" Djeeta yelled. "Have some _tact_!"

"W-w-whoa! Don't hurt me! Don't — that's my wing! Wait! _Wait!_ Let me go! I'm sorry!"


End file.
